Drinking with the Cook

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Furman, Laura. Drinking with the Cook. Houston: Winedale Publishing, 2001.

Reason read: June is national short story month.

Drinking with the Cook – Peggy and Don have a weird relationship. While they have been dating and seem quite serious they never really discuss anything of importance. Right away you can tell they aren’t meant to be together, especially when Peggy gives up her city apartment to live with Don in the country. She doesn’t even know if he wants her there. She is a fish out of water but blind to how wrong the situation really is. Best line: “I wish there was a way to bank fear and draw on it only when necessary” (p 19).

Hagalund – is a story for which I needed a map to guide me. Miriam, while on vacation in Colorado with her husband and son, reminisces about her time as a single girl spending a winter in Sweden. It’s during the Vietnam War, a time when no one trusted anyone else – not completely. Favorite quote: “But now that was over, and I was waiting for the next thing to happen though it was happening already” (p 155).

Author fact: Furman has her own website here: Laura Furman.

Book trivia: There are eleven other stories in Drinking with the Cook.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Good Things Come in Small Packages” (p 103).

What a Piece of Work I Am

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Kraft, Eric. What a Piece of Work I Am (a Conflabulation). New York: Crown Publishers, Inc. 1994.

Confessional: I am growing tired of Kraft’s wittiness. Even though each Peter Leroy book is nothing like the others, there is a certain repetition of cunning that is wearying. Case in point: Ariane Lodkochnikov is the subject of What a Piece of Work I Am only Peter has admitted she is the sister of his imaginary friend. Tricky. Tricky because Ariane made an appearance in the previous Leroy story as a childhood crush. Now they are older and Ariane wants Peter to help tell her life story. In telling her story Peter reinvents her a second time (hence the title of the book). But! She’s supposed to be dead as well as imaginary. I have no imagination for this. Odd, I know. Probably the most interesting part to What a Piece of Work I Am is how Kraft incorporates Leroy’s grandparents back into the story. They have an imaginative story as well. Peter’s grandmother is dying of pancreatic cancer but has always wanted to sail to Rarontonga. With the help of Ariane, Peter’s grandfather gives his wife her wish in fantasy form.

Reason read: to continue the series started in February, honoring Kraft’s birth month.

Author fact: I am running out of things to say about Eric Kraft. According to the internet he was born in 1944.

Book trivia: Curious to note: Ariane creeps around the construction site of a resort much in the same way Peter explored his high school while it was being built.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Eric Kraft: Too Good To Miss” (p 141). Like all the others, I might add…

Battle Cry of Freedom

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McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom. Read by Jonathan Davis. New York: Recorded Books, 2007.

Reason read: I am cheating a little with the reading of this book. It’s in two volumes and over 900 pages long. There is no way I can finish a 900 book in 30 days so I’m stretching it a little: in May I’m reading it in honor of May 26th, 1865 being the day conditions of surrender were offered to E. Kirby Smith. In June I am reading it in honor of June 2nd, 1865, the day Smith officially accepted those conditions. Another reason for May: the first officer was killed on May 24th 1861. Another reason for the May-June reading: the battle of the Pines took place from May 31 to June 1st, 1862.

Every single time I start to write a review for Battle Cry for Freedom I come up with the same damned word – “comprehensive”. It seems as if everyone and their brother uses this same word when writing a review. I guess it’s an appropriate word because it definitely fits. Said another way: if the era, the climate of the times before, during and after the Civil War was an inanimate object it’s as if McPherson studied it from every possible angle; getting on his knees, using a ladder to stand over it, circling around and around it to describe every little thing he sees, careful to leave not a single observation out. The end result is a comprehensive (there’s that word again) view of what our fledgling country looked like. You’ll meet Fire Eaters, Know Nothings, Butternuts, Copperheads, Knights of the Golden Circle, Whigs and the Free Soil Party in addition to the usual suspects like Robert E. Lee, Harriet Tubman, Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis and John Brown, just to name a few. You’ll see the country from an early economic and sociological standpoint. Industry and religion find their way into patriotism and what it meant to be independent.

Best parts: learning that some military maneuvers were so successful they are still taught in military schools to this day. I also enjoyed reading about how women went from being wives who were just supposed to comfort their returned from battle husbands to respected nurses on the battlefield (thanks to Florence Nightingale and Clara Barton, to name two).

Book trivia: Battle Cry won a Pulitzer.

Lines I liked, “The United States has usually prepared for its wars after getting into them” (p 312). Yup. This quote gave me a chuckle since I just finished walking 60 miles for Just ‘Cause, “Few of these southern soldiers had made a one-day march of twenty miles…(p 406).

Author fact: McPherson is an professor emeritus of U.S. History at Princeton. As an aside, my grandfather graduated from Princeton and gave me a stuffed leopard he insist I name after his alma mater. I wonder if I still have “Princeton” somewhere?

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the super straightforward chapter called “Civil War Nonfiction” (p 58). Duh.

Flashman at the Charge

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Fraser, George MacDonald. Flashman at the Charge. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1973.

Are you paying attention? By now we are up to the fourth installment of papers owned by Mr Paget Morrison. As a reminder, Harry Flashman is the bully in Tom Brown’s Schooldays. To bring the reader up to speed, the first three packets of papers revealed Flashy’s early military career, his involvement in the 1st Afghan War, his run-in with Otto Bismark (& Lola Montez), and his escapades as a slaver in West Africa. At the end of the last packet of papers Flashman’s wife, Elspeth, was pregnant with their(?) son. Flashman admits he’s not sure it’s his, especially after he catches his wife with a lover.
In the fourth installment the year is now 1854 and this time Flashy has been appointed as special guardian to Prince William of Celle during the Crimean War. His son, Harry Albert Victor (aka “Havvy”) is five years old. I don’t think I am giving anything away when I say Flashman is taken prisoner and makes an interesting deal with his captor. The outcome of that deal is not revealed in Flashman at the Charge. Maybe in the next installment?
George MacDonald Fraser calls himself the “editor” of this packet of papers and admits he only corrected spelling and added necessary footnotes (and there are a lot of them, as always).I have to admit, I’m still not used to the downright silliness of Fraser’s writing. Case in point – in the heat of battle Flashman has gas, “I remember, my stomach was asserting itself again, and I rode yelling with panic and farting furiously at the same time” (p 105). What I liked the best about this set of papers is that there is someone who sees through Flashman’s cowardice (finally!).

Reason read: to continue the series started in April (Fraser’s birthday).

Author fact: Fraser has been called a “comic novelist”. His writing is funny, I have to admit.

Book trivia: Interesting tidbit: the back flap ends with this statement, “Read Flashman at the Charge and you’ll understand his international reputation as:” That’s it. They leave you hanging.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “George MacDonald Fraser: Too Good To Miss” (p 93). I have to note that Nancy Pearl called this Flash at the Charge (both within the chapter and in the index) when it should be Flashman.

Murder on a Kibbutz

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Gur, Batya. Murder on a Kibbutz: a Communal Case. Translated by Dalya Bilu. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1991. Once again Gur fills her mystery with an overload of characters. This time I was armed with a notebook to keep everyone straight right from the beginning. Are you ready for this? Here is the cast of Murder on a Kibbutz:

  • Aaron Meroz – outsider, absorbed by kibbutz, divorced, has been gone from kibbutz for 22 years, returned 8 years ago for a funeral, grew up with Osnat, had a one night stand with her, left kibbutz to pursue law school but has remained a member of the Education Committee, has 2 children; got involved with Osnat (again) right before her death
  • Ahinoam – ?
  • Albert – Simcha’s disabled husband
  • Alex – in charge of work roster; former security
  • Ami – Michael Ohayon’s brother-in-law
  • Amit – Moish’s 2nd son
  • Andre Kestenbaum – medical examiner
  • Arik – Shula’s husband
  • Ariyeh Levy – Jerusalem Subdivision chief
  • Arnon – 7 years old, Aaron’s son
  • Asaf – ?
  • Avidor – author, organizer
  • Avigail – police; former registered nurse on kibbutz
  • Avishai – small child
  • Ben – ?
  • Benny – police
  • Ben Yaakof – butcher
  • Dr. Ben Zakkan – on vacation
  • Bezalel – friend of Srilke
  • Boaz – married to Tova
  • Bracha – patient in infirmary (mentioned twice)
  • Bruria – in charge of laundry
  • Chilik – ?
  • Commander Shmerling – Investigations Division officer
  • Dafna – Aaron’s ex-wife
  • Dana – ?
  • Danny Balilty – police
  • Dave – middle aged bachelor from Canada, volunteer; invented the cream made from cacti;
  • Deddie – ?
  • Ditza – Ilan T’s wife
  • Dvorka – Osnat’s mother-in-law
  • Dr. Gilboa – works at Barzilai hospital
  • Dr. Cassuto – toxicologist
  • Dr. Eli Reimer – away for 5 weeks for army reserve duty
  • Dr. Hildesheimer – character in previous novel
  • Dr. Hirsh – director of Institute of Pathological Medicine
  • Eitan Avidor – Avidor’s son; dead
  • Elhanan “JoJo” – kibbutz treasurer
  • Eli – police
  • Elka – former head of education committee
  • Elroi – police psychologist
  • Emanuel Shorer – head of Criminal Investigation Unit
  • Esther – Avigail’s aunt; nurse; dead
  • Estie – ?
  • Fanya – head of sewing (mentioned twice), concentration camp survivor, has 2 kids
  • Fela – Nira’s mother
  • Felix – elderly patient at infirmary; artist; has 4 children
  • Froike – ?
  • Gady – Felix’s second son; a whistler
  • Gila – Levy’s secretary
  • Golda – Moish’s housemother
  • Guta – Fanya’s sister, in charge of dairy, concentration camp survivor; always eats lunch late
  • Hadas – left kibbutz and is living in U.S.
  • Hannah Shpitzer – Zeev HaCohen’s 2nd wife, committed suicide
  • Havaleh – gossiper
  • Haviva – ?
  • Hayuta – ?
  • Herzl – ?
  • Hilik – examines the electrical cables for refrigeration
  • Ilan T – artist
  • Jacques – Michael Ohayon’s uncle (mother’s brother), dead
  • Jeannette Abukasi – ?
  • Kochava Strauss – sergeant
  • Krestenbaum – ?
  • Limor Malul – Simcha’s 13 years old daughter
  • Lotte – class housemother (mentioned many times)
  • Machluf Levy – police; has two kids
  • Matilda – kitchen manager; talker
  • Maya – old girlfriend of Michael Ohayon’s
  • Menucha – ?
  • Michael Ohayon* – member of Serious Crimes Unit
  • Mickey – ?
  • Miriam – Moish’s mother (dead)
  • Misha – secretary for a different kibbutz
  • Moshe “Moish” Ayal – kibbutz director
  • Mottie Malul – 12 year old, troubled son of Simcha
  • Nahari – ?
  • Nehama – Fanya’s daughter, moved away, married
  • Nire – Michael Ohayon’s ex-wife
  • Noga – ?
  • Nora – Felix’s wife
  • Oded – Yacheved’s son
  • Ohad/Ilan – Avigail’s affair
  • Osnat Harel* – has 4 children, was married to Yuvik, kibbutz secretary (reminded of that twice), needed privacy even as a child
  • Pazit – 10 years old, Aaron’s son
  • Rachela – 24 yr old
  • Rifka Maimoni (“Rickie”) – infirmary nurse
  • Rinat – Lotte’s daughter
  • Riva – nurse (mentioned twice); dead
  • Rella – in the poultry section
  • Rocheleh – ?
  • Ronit – asked for Valium
  • Ruthie – ?
  • Sarit – coordinator of the Special Investigation Team; nail biter, only other woman on police force
  • Shlomit – Osnat’s daughter
  • Shmiel – in the poultry section; friend of Srulke
  • Shula – Moish’s sister; work-roster organizer; had gastric flu
  • Simec – Guta’s husband
  • Simcha Malul – mother to Mottie, 5 other children (1 stillborn), 49 years old, grandmother, works in kibbutz infirmary
  • Srulke – Moish’s father, hates waste, dies
  • Tova – Zeev HaCohen’s daughter; married to Boaz
  • Tzilla – police
  • Uri – currently abroad
  • Uri – driver for Misha
  • Victor – ?
  • Yaela – rumored to be Felix’s daughter
  • Yaffa – ?
  • Yankele – Fanya’s son, violent, works in controversial cosmetics factory; Dave is his only friend
  • Yacheved – Oded’s mother
  • Yedidya – maintenance man; could be Yaela’s father
  • Yehuda – Dvorka’s “mate”; external secretary
  • Yehuda Nahari – Brigadier General; head of National Union for Serious Crimes Investigation (NUSCI)
  • Yoav – Osnat’s son; a soldier
  • Yocheved – ?
  • Yoel – artist
  • Yoopie – writes skits; in charge of gardening shed
  • Yoska – driver for Avigail
  • Yuval Ohayon – Michael Ohayon’s son
  • Yuvik – Osnat’s husband, Dvorka’s son (died in Lebanon war)
  • Yuzek – Nira’s father
  • Yvette – Michael Ohayon’s older sister
  • Zacharia – Fanya’s husband
  • Zahara – Felix’s daughter
  • Zeev HaCohen – tall, old, has a daughter
  • Zvika – working on a project for children
  • Zvikie – requested to take a course in London & was denied

(* = main character; ? = name was mentioned only once)

But, back to the plot. This time Michael Ohayon must solve a mysterious death on the kibbutz. The secretary for the commune was poisoned. Before Michael comes on the scene you learn that the 50 year old kibbutz has been going through some controversial changes. Meetings are now televised so that members can “attend” in their rooms. There is a new open-air theater. Outsiders are being hired to help in the infirmary & fields. What used to be plum fields are now for cacti grown for the cosmetic factory where many kibbutz members work. But, probably the biggest change is the one yet to come. There is talk of creating a separate house for the elderly members of the kibbutz. For years there has always been a sleeping house for children and a house for adults. The elderly have never been separated before. Osnat, the murder victim, was spearheading this change. As for Michael Ohayon, he is still the coffee addicted lonely investigator. Having broken up with Maya he now sets his romantic heart on a colleague. I have a feeling the next book is going to be very interesting. If I only I could keep the characters straight!

Reason read: to continue the series started in March in honor of it being the best time to visit Israel.

Favorite lines, “Fatal words that fester in the mind and can never be forgotten” (p 35) and “Ugly things were hidden under every word” (p 200).

Sentence that made me laugh out loud, “…stress makes rabbits seem dangerous” (p 217). Did anyone else think of Monty Python?
Author fact: Last time I reported Gur died in 2005. She was 57 and died from cancer.

Book trivia: This is the third Michael Ohayon mystery. I have a total of five on my reading list. Confessional: I read one out of order so I only have one more to read.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Crime is a Globetrotter: Israel” (p 61).

Lone Pilgrim

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Colwin, Laurie. The Lone Pilgrim. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1981. Reason read: June is National Short Story Month. There are thirteen stories within The Lone Pilgrim and they are as follows:

  1. The Lone Pilgrim – Children’s book illustrator Paula Price is the perfect house guest, a student of human conduct. Vicariously, she lives through her hosts. But really, all she is doing is looking for love. I found her constant questioning “that was love, wasn’t it?” endearing. Favorite line, “He had never so much as brushed my arm with his sleeve, and here we were locked in an embrace on an empty street” (p 14).
  2. The Boyish Lover – Jane and Cordy seem to be the perfect couple…until they get to know one another. Cordy comes from money but thinks Jane is too lavish. She lives paycheck to paycheck but knows how to live life to the fullest. It’s this difference of prosperity that drives them apart. Favorite line, “Love, in its initial stages, takes care of everything” (p 25). True.
  3. Sentimental Memory – Unidentified twice divorced woman runs away to Scotland to figure out her life. She’s only 31 so the idea of two fail marriages behind her is startling. In Scotland she meets a young Scottish student, home on holiday. He’s madly in love with an Italian girl. Without realizing it, he teaches her about the meaning of love. Best lines (for you who know me you’ll know why there are two): “The very least I could do was to catch up to myself” (p 43) and “I realized that there were times when the only appropriate response to Billy would have been to strangle him” (p 44).
  4. A Girl Skating – Bernadette Spaeth tells the creepy story of a famous poet/professor obsessed with her during her childhood and teen years. It’s an ominous story with slightly sinister statements like, “I was the child he loved best and there was no escaping him” (p 51) and “There was no way I could duck him” (p 54).
  5. An Old Fashioned Story – Everyone knows a priss like this, “Elizabeth’s friends came down with measles, chicken pox, and mumps, but Elizabeth considered Nelson her childhood disease” (p 60). Coming from a high-society culture Elizabeth Leopold was supposed to date only good boys (like Nelson; possibly only Nelson). She wanted anyone but Nelson.
  6. Intimacy – Martha Howard is a woman wrangling old emotions. William Sutherland had been a married man when he and Martha first had an affair. Now she’s the married woman. Is it cheating when William’s love came first? “For a moment they were simply lovers with a past between them” (p 89).
  7. Travel – Another story about relationships and marriage, “He knew if he wasn’t around I would step back and run my life as if he never walked into it” (p 96).
  8. Delia’s Father – Georgia Levy remembers her childhood friend’s seductive and exotic father and how she ends up kissing him. I had to wonder how much childhood innocence was really lost when Georgia skipped school that day. Best line, “Children are a tribe, and childhood is there tribal home” (p 116).
  9. A Mythological Subject – Interesting tale about a cousin who falls in love with a colleague. “Of all the terrible things in life, living with a divided heart is the most terrible for an honorable person” (p 127).
  10. St Anthony of the Desert – Another story about a relationship gone awry except this one has a very subtle twist. He’s separated and wants to give his wife another chance. She only mentions it once so if you aren’t paying attention you might miss it, “After all, no one knew I was married” (p 145). Best line from the story, “In ordinary times, devils are ordinary” (p 142).
  11. The Smile Beneath the Smile – Another story about a married individual having an affair with a single one. One pines away for the other. Favorite line, “If you live in a city, you cannot avoid inadvertently opening your life to strangers in public places” (p 154).
  12. The Achieve of, the Mastery of the Thing – a professor’s wife is having an affair with marijuana. Interesting tidbit: the title of the story comes from a Gerard Manley Hopkins poem. That’s cool.
  13. Family Happiness – Yet another story about a married individual (Polly) having an affair with a single one. This time there is the burden of a quirky family. Her love life consists of one man who makes her life normal while the other man makes her life natural. Polly’s boyfriend always gets her name right while her family is always nicknaming. Lines I liked, “The family doted on her, but no one paid much attention to her” (p 191) and “I like my mole-like life with you” (p 206).

There is a pattern to Colwin’s stories and a common theme. Family and relationships (and someone always running off to Paris).

Author fact: Colwin died of a heart attack at age 48.

Book trivia: “Lone Pilgrim” and “The Achieve of, the Mastery of the Thing” are Nancy Pearl’s favorite stories from Lone Pilgrim.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in two different chapters. First, “Food for Thought” (p 92) and again in simply, “Short Stories” (p 220). There are two points I have to make. Lone Pilgrim shouldn’t have been in “Food for Thought” and Pearl added an extra comma in the title of the short story “The Achieve of, the Mastery of the Thing.”

Ruby

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Bond, Cynthia. Ruby. London: Hogarth, 2015.

Reason read: this is an Early Review book from LibraryThing. Note: I was supposed to receive this back in January(?) I think. It actually came (overly packaged) in the mail on May 16th. I don’t know how I feel about reviewing a book that has first, already been published, then has been reviewed hundreds of times and also been selected for the “Oprah Book Club 2.0”. Seems a little been-there, done-that. But anyway…

Here’s what others are saying about Ruby: powerful, bittersweet, evil, angry, difficult, confusing, heavy. They also say the language is gorgeous. I would agree but I think it’s too much so. I found Bond’s writing style to be too lyrical, too lush. People speak in unnatural ways. Who says “she too stiff a tree”? It’s that otherwise beautiful perfume that someone wears a little too liberally; took a bath in it, as they say. I got a little weary of trees spying on people and clouds muttering.

Ruby, told from the perspective of several different characters (the crow was my favorite), is a violent and tragic story. How to otherwise describe Ruby? Everyone seems to be a little off kilter. There is black magic in the air. Celia has been taking care of her adult brother for so long they both have forgotten their proper familial hierarchy. He calls her mama. Ruby has been abused since she was five (warning: those abuses are spelled out in detail); everyone in town seems to be out for blood because everyone has a story.

Since this is already out and about I feel okay quoting from it. Here is a line that shouldn’t be missed, “Hope was a dangerous thing, something best squashed before it became contagious” (p 132). Made me think of Emily Dickinson’s “hope perches in the soul…”

Author fact: Ruby is Cynthia Bond’s first novel. She has spent time teaching writing to homeless and at-risk youth. That is beyond cool.

Book trivia: Ruby was selected by Oprah’s 2.0 Book Club (Oprah.com/bookclub). But, I said that already.

Drown

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Diaz, Junot. Drown. Read by Jonathan Davis. Westminster, MD: Books on Tape, 2007.

Here’s the thing. Anything you read by Diaz is going to feel like heavy drinking in a rough-around-the-edges bar; the kind of place where it’s too dark to see; where the soles of your shoes are sticky-stuck to the floor and there is the obsessively constant need to wipe your hands and mouth. Diaz has that conversational, lean in and listen way of talking that sounds slightly conspiratorial but always brutally honest. While the stories change direction and voice, the messages of culture, society, family, tradition and passion do not. Powerful characters are matched only by their fierce loves and tragic losses. Their triumphs and travesties are spilled across the page with a “so what?” wild abandon. It’s as if you are elbow to elbow with Diaz as he whispers to you lush stories from his childhood, his coming of age, his entire history. Every story is intensely personal. But, But! But, all the while you are aware that this bar, these stories – this is his turf and you are not safe without him there. You need him to keep talking.

Reason read: supposed to be read in honor of the Merengue Festival that takes place sometime in late July/early August but as a series of short stories, read in honor of June’s national short story status.

Book trivia: Here’s what kept me up at night – the story of the kid whose face was half chewed off by a pig. You meet his tormentors, children who don’t understand the need for him to wear a mask. But then later, you meet the poor child and it rattles you to the core.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Cavorting Through the Caribbean: Dominican Republic” (p 54).

June Buggy

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I said May was going to be a crazy month and I was right. I survived the half marathon at the beginning of the month and the 60 mile walk at the end of the month. I didn’t get to all of the books because I futzed around with so many non-list running books (silly me). But, here is the list such as it is:

  1. Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan (DNF)
  2. In a Strange City by Laura Lippman
  3. By a Spider’s Thread by Laura Lippman (AB)
  4. Recognitions by William Gaddis (DNF)
  5. Maus by Art Spiegelman
  6. Lady Franklin’s Revenge by Ken McGoogan
  7. Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao* by Junot Diaz (AB)
  8. Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
  9. Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin
  10. Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan
  11. A Good Doctor’s Son by Steven Schwartz
  12. Drinking: a Love Story by Caroline Knapp
  13. Ancient Rome on 5 Denarii a Day by Philip Matyszak
  14. Nero Wolfe Cookbook by Rex Stout
  15. Treasure Hunter by W. Jameson (ER)
  16. Maus II by Art Spiegelman (Jan)
  17. The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat (AB)
  18. In Xanadu by William Dalrymple
  19. The Assault by Harry Mulisch
  20. Wild Blue by Stephen Ambrose
  21. Shot in the Heart by Mikal Gilmore
  22. Greater Nowheres by David Finkelstein/Jack London
  23. Alma Mater by P.F Kluge
  24. Old Man & Me by Elaine Dundy
  25. Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy
  26. Good Life by Ben Bradlee
  27. Underworld by Don DeLillo
  28. Her Name Was Lola by Russell Hoban
  29. Man Who Was Thursday by GK Chesterton
  30. Fires From Heaven by Robert Jordan
  31. Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce DNF
  32. Herb ‘n’ Lorna by Eric Kraft
  33. Polish Officer by Alan Furst – (AB)
  34. Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan
  35. Walden by Henry David Throreau
  36. Reservations Recommended by Eric Kraft
  37. Selected Letters of Norman Mailer edited by J. Michael Lennon – (ER)
  38. Chasing Monarchs by Robert Pyle
  39. Saturday Morning Murder by Batya Gur
  40. Bebe’s By Golly Wow by Yolanda Joe
  41. Lives of the Muses by Francine Prose
  42. Broom of the System by David Wallace
  43. Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan
  44. Little Follies by Eric Kraft
  45. Literary Murder by Batya Gur
  46. Bob Marley, My Son by Cedella Marley Booker (ER)
  47. Night Flight by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
  48. Southern Mail by Antoine de Saint- Exupery
  49. Measure of All Things, the by Ken Alder (AB)
  50. Two Gardeners by Emily Wilson
  51. Royal Flash by George Fraser
  52. Fifties by David Halberstam (Apr – DNS)
  53. Binding Spell by Elizabeth Arthur
  54. Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan (DNF)
  55. ADDED: Castle in the Backyard by Betsy Draine (EB)
  56. Path of Daggers by Robert Jordan (DNF)
  57. Where Do You Stop? by Eric Kraft
  58. Everything You Ever Wanted by Jillian Lauren (ER)
  59. Murder on a Kibbutz by Batya Gur (Jun)
  60. Flash for Freedom! by George Fraser
  61. Murder in Amsterdam by Ian Buruma
  62. Petra: lost city by Christian Auge
  63. From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Friedman
  64. Jordan by E. Borgia (May – DNS)
  65. Coroner’s Lunch by Colin Cotterill (May – DNS)
  66. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
  67. Flashman at the Charge by George MacDonald Fraser (Jun/Apr)
  68. What a Piece of Work I Am by Eric Kraft (Jun/Feb)
  69. Castles in the Air by Judy Corbett (Jun)
  70. Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson (AB/Jun)
  71. Thirty-three Teeth by Colin Cotterill (Jun)
  72. ADDED: Ruby by Cynthia Bond (ER)
  73. Millstone by Margaret Drabble (Jun)
  74. Winter’s Heart by Robert Jordan (DNF)
  75. Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan (DNF)
  76. At Home with the Glynns by Eric Kraft (Jul/Feb)
  77. Disco for the Departed by Colin Cotterill (Jul)
  78. Sixty Stories by Donald Barthelme (Jul)
  79. New Physics and Cosmology by Arthur Zajonc (Jul)
  80. Grifters by Jim Thompson (Jul)
  81. Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (Jul)
  82. Snow Angels by James Thompson (Jul)
  83. Anarchy and Old Dogs by Colin Cotterill (Aug)
  84. ADDED: Leaving Small’s Hotel by Eric Kraft (Aug/Feb)
  85. Flashman’s Lady by George MacDonald Fraser (Aug)
  86. Possession by AS Byatt (Aug)
  87. In the Footsteps of Ghanghis Khan by John DeFrancis (Aug)
  88. What Just Happened by James Gleick (Aug)
  89. Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett (Aug)
  90. ADDED: Inflating a Dog by Eric Kraft (Sep/Feb)
  91. Curse of the Pogo Stick by Colin Cotterill (Sep)
  92. Flashman and the Redskins by George MacDonald Fraser (Sep)
  93. Queens’ Play by Dorothy Dunnett (Sep)
  94. Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood (Sep)
  95. Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (Sep)
  96. Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Sep)
  97. Then She Found Me by Elinor Lipman (Oct)
  98. Merry Misogynist by Colin Cotterill (Oct)
  99. Disorderly Knights by Dorothy Dunnett (Oct)
  100. Flashman and the Dragon by George MacDonald Fraser (Oct)
  101. Dark Hills Divide by Patrick Carman (Nov)
  102. Love Songs from a Shallow Grave by Collin Cotterill (Nov)
  103. Flashman and the Mountain of Light by George MacDonald Fraser (Nov)
  104. Pawn in Frankincense by Dorothy Dunnett (Nov)
  105. Andorra by Peter Cameron (Nov)

DNF = Did Not Finish; AB = Audio Book; ER = Early Review; DNS = Did Not Start; EB = Electronic book

Shots on the Bridge

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Greene, Ronnie. Shots on the Bridge: Police Violence and Cover-Up in the Wake of Katrina. Boston: Beacon Press, 2015.

Reason read: early review book for LibraryThing. Confessional – I chose this book because of Natalie Merchant’s song, “Go Down Moses” which was inspired by the events on the Danziger bridge. The fact that Natalie heard about the incident while living in Spain at the time blows my mind.

Ronnie Greene wants to send a strong message. Before he even gets to the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina he wants to make sure you understand this: historically, New Orleans has been a city of crooked cops. He outlines other incidents of police brutality and corruption that went on before September 4th, 2005. In his prologue he names Kenneth Bowen (who beat a second degree murder charge), Michael Hunter (suspended twice for leniency when investigating fellow officers), Len Davis (protected drug dealers), Antoinette Frank (helped murder people and then responded to her own crime)…the list goes on. Greene wants the reader to know these people are not above falsifying reports and planting evidence and inventing witnesses and looking the other way. Interestingly enough, he tells some of these same stories in greater detail at the end of the book as well.
On the flip side, Greene wants the reader to visualize the victims on the Danziger bridge as harmless folks. Ronald C. Madison was a mentally challenged man who couldn’t hurt a fly. He hadn’t evacuated New Orleans because he didn’t want to leave his dachshunds; the evacuation site wouldn’t take pets. His brother stayed behind to look after him. Teenager James Brissette was still in New Orleans because his mom had no plans to leave the city and his daddy had left without him. Cousin Jose Holmes Jr. was on the bridge because there were too many people already in the van used to evacuate. These people had already endured devastating hardships even before Hurricane Katrina. Ronald’s parents had lost a child to SIDS and another to a car accident. Sister Barbara had leukemia and Loretta had polio. Ronald wasn’t the only one mentally challenged. His brother Raymond had issues as well. James Brissette had lost a brother to a brain aneurysm and sister Andrea had cerebral palsy. Greene further humanizes the victims by telling the reader what their favorite television shows were and stresses that guns were not allowed in their households.
While the chapters are slightly misaligned (there is some repetition), Shots on the Bridge has the ability to motivate engaged thinking and encourage conversation. My roommate and I shared thoughts on a variety of topics surrounding police corruption and the events of Hurricane Katrina as a result of this book. We discussed the police being shielded by not only the natural disaster of flooding, but the human tragedy of looting and violence. The combination resulted in a city in utter chaos and devastation. It was easy for New Orleans police to hide behind the events before and after Katrina.

Author fact: Greene is an investigative reporter for the Associated Press.

Book trivia: There are no photographs. They will be inserted, along with the epilogue, before the sale date of August 18th, 2015. Just in time for the 10th anniversary of the devastating hurricane.

Tales From Another Mother Runner

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Tales From Another Mother Runner: Triumphs, Tips, and Tricks From the Road: a Collection for Badass Mother Runners. McDowell, Dimitry and Sarah Bowen Shea, editors. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2015.

Reason read: for the title alone. I’m not a mother but I love a book with a great title.

Dimitry starts the introduction and right away you can tell what kind of person runner she is. Even with a bad stress fracture she “needed to go the distance” not as a spectator but as a runner at the Nike Women’s Marathon. Sounds like someone else I know.
I had to wait three months before getting this book from a library almost 200 miles away. It was worth the wait. Tales From Another Mother Runner isn’t just for running mothers. I should know I’m definitely not a mother and, with only two halves under my belt, I’m barely a runner. This book is for anyone who has to juggle running with other parts of their lives (and not just kids, too). Husbands, jobs, injuries, fears, you name it. These tales cover every aspect of running from first steps to last miles and features every kind of female runner from the speedies to the barely jogging (but just don’t call it jogging). Like the art of running there are highs and lows, funny stories mixed with sad ones. I identified with dealing with depression as well as the more lighthearted nuisances like trying to find a anti-chafe remedy for all areas (and I do mean, ahem, all areas). I enjoyed Tales from Another Mother Runner so much I’m going to look for McDowell and Shea’s other books.

Murder in Amsterdam

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Buruma, Ian. Murder in Amsterdam: the Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance. London: Atlantic Books, 2006.

Reason read: the big Holland tulip festival is in May…although this has nothing to do with flowers.

Mohammed Bouyeri was 26 years old when he not only shot Theo van Gogh several times but slashed his throat with a machete as well. He ended his assault by stabbing a note into Van Gogh’s lifeless body – however the final insult was kicking the corpse before calmly walking away. The note, oddly enough, wasn’t addressed to Van Gogh (rightly so since the dead man couldn’t read it) but to anti-Islam politician Hirsi Ali who claimed the Koran was the source of abuse against women. That’s not to say there weren’t plenty of folks in Holland who wished Van Gogh dead. He thrived on being controversial to the point of revolting. Buruma knew Van Gogh in certain circles so I can only imagine what it was like to write about his death as an acquaintance. But, the actual crime is only the centerpiece for the much wider topic of controversies surrounding what happens when nonconformist immigrant populations with differing religions and cultural politics clash against other stringent societies.

As an aside, whenever I thought about the subtitle of Murder in Amsterdam (The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance) I had Natalie Merchant’s lyrics from “This House is On Fire” in my head, “You go passing wrong for right and right for wrong people only stand for that for just so long”. She is not asking what is the limit of tolerance. She is telling you there IS a limit.

Lines that lingered, “When smugness is challenged, panic sets in” (p 15), “Unsure of where he belonged, he lost himself in a murderous cause” (p 23), “Part walking penis, part phony aristocrat, Fortyn became a presence, in TV studios, on radio programs, and at public debates that could not be ignored” (p 59), and (last one), “The sense of being “disappeared” can lead to aggression, as well as self-hatred; dreams of omnipotence blend with the desire for self-destruction” (p 140).

Author fact: Buruma also wrote a book called Voltaire’s Coconuts. With his sense of humor (and not having read the book) I wonder what coconuts he’s referring to….

Book trivia: there are no pictures of Theo van Gogh nor maps of the area in which he was murdered.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Hollandays” (p 96).

Flash for Freedom

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Fraser, George MacDonald. Flash for Freedom! New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972.

Reason read: to continue the series started in April (George MacDonald Fraser’s birth month).

If you are keeping track, this is the third installment of the Flashman papers “owned” by Mr. Paget Morrison. To recap the first two packets of papers (published in 1969 & 1970): Flashman has been expelled from Rugby School, served in the British army and survived a skirmish with Otto von Bismark. The third packet picks up in the year 1848 and seems to be initially edited by Flashman’s sister-in-law, Grizel de Rothchild as the swearwords are heavily edited and the sex is practically nonexistent (unheard of for our Harry, but don’t worry – it picks up!). This time Harry’s adventure focuses on a trip to America (Washington and New Orleans) where he meets Abraham Lincoln, gets caught up in the slave trade (with the underground railroad and as a salve runner), and par for the course, nearly loses his life several times over. Once again, it’s a woman who saves his bacon.

The more I read the Flashman series, the more I like Flashy’s humor. I can’t help it. When he called his mother-in-law a “Medusa-in-law” I giggled.

Author fact: I’m leaving off the author fact from here on out because I’ve already ready four Fraser books and there is only so much I can say about him. If something interesting pops up I’ll share on the next book.

Book trivia: The cover of Flash for Freedom is really odd.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “George MacDonald Fraser: Too Good To Miss” (p 93).

From Beirut to Jerusalem

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Friedman, Thomas. From Beirut to Jerusalem New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1989.

Reason read: Iran is beautiful in May…or so I’ve heard.

This book follows a chronology of the Middle East that begins in 1882 and ends in 1988. It could be seen as a love story, a biography about a region Friedman knows intimately and loves dearly despite its many contradictions. In spite of the ever-roiling Arab-Israeli conflict Friedman is right in the thick of it and writes as if he is at home. While he has a reporters flair for the detail there is a cavalier nonchalance when it comes to the dangers. He has grown used to the gunfire, the bombings and the kidnappings. His ambivalence in the face of such violence could almost be comical if it was not so conflicted.

Quotes that grabbed me, “Death had no echo in Beirut” (p 29). That spoke volumes to me. Here’s another, “Levin’s kidnapping, and the dozens that would follow, taught me a valuable lesson about journalism that one could learn only in a place like Beirut – to pay attention to toe silence” (p 74).

Book trivia: From Beirut to Jerusalem in the winner of the National Book Award of 1989.

Author fact: According to the dust jacket of From Beirut to Jerusalem Friedman had won five different awards by the time this book was published.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter simply called “The Middle East” (p 154).

Petra

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Auge, Christian and Jean-Marie Dentzer. Petra: Lost City of the Ancient World. New York: Discoveries: Henry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishers, 2000.

Reason read: Speaking of lost cities, the first Indiana Jones movie was released in May.

When you think of the word ‘extinct’ most likely you think of dinosaurs, the woolly mammoth, maybe even the dodo bird. Cities don’t readily come to mind. Petra is one such extinct city hidden deep in the landscape of Jordan. What is so unique about Petra is that all of its structures were carved out of the towering rocks around it, creating a unique fortress. For centuries a civilization lived and breathed within Petra until the Crusaders bullied it into ruin and ultimate desolation. Petra was abandoned and forgotten until 1812 when explorer Johann Burckhardt stumbled across it’s shadowy beauty. Auge and Dentzer bring Petra’s art and architecture into the light in a mere 125+ pages. Before you even delve into the text of Petra you are treated to seven pages of glossy gorgeous photos, giving you a sense of why, since 1985, the city has been on the UNESCO list of world-heritage sites.
The only drawback to the tiny book is that text and absolutely stunning photographs are crammed together on the page. Every photograph has a lengthy description definitely worth reading. Because of the cramped space the flow of reading was at time, choppy. I decided it was better to read the text and then go back to study the photographs and read the descriptions.

Author(s) fact: Auge is a specialist in ancient coins and Dentzer is a professor.

Book trivia: this is my first experience with the Discoveries series and I’d like to think all of their books are like this, but Petra has gorgeous illustrations.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called simply “Jordan” (p 120).